Umbra: Feed on my Fear

Anywhere (1)

Isolated. Slow-paced. Cold.

Those are the words that describe Gorbeon Pine. It is a lonely town situated at the heart of pine trees and lakes. It is gorgeous but gloomy.

The place where we agreed to meet is inside a compound where you need to walk for minutes to get to the last screening of Singing in the rain. It's an old movie and apparently that's one of the twenty movies that the owner keeps replaying.

As soon as I park my car at the entrance , I bolt out with a panic.

Buds of sweat threatens to trickle down despite the lack of external heat from the surroundings. The sound of my heels clicking dominates the dark alley that makes the stray cats cower under the slit of the garbage trunk. 

I rush to the old picture house. My feet burdened with the force of my entire body weight every time I take a step. I run the last meter to meet the man standing with his head held up high to the yellow neon sign that is still glimmering despite the rust that covers it.

I am way behind the time and the closed doors of the cinema just confirms it.

He'a going to be pissed. But I have a valid reason for it...or so I thought. But he'll understand.

"You're two hours late," he says with a quiet accusatory tone.

Catching my breath, I muster the words to explain myself to the man holding a bouquet of blue evening primrose, "I totally forgot. I went home after and fell asleep-."

"Okay. You already ate?" Austin hands me the flowers which I take with caution. I feel like a student who gets sent to detention for the first time.

"Yes. Before I went to sleep..." I bite my cheek. Silence grows as I can feel his disappointment. I mentally slap myself for that, feeling more than a tinge of guilt, "Can we maybe do this tomorrow?"

"No."

An imaginary timer went off and beads of water start to pour.

"You want to do the thing where we stand in the middle of the rain?" I mutter. Terrible. Terrible idea. I blush as soon as the words came out of my lips.

He looks at me. Confusion plastered on his face.

"Why are we going to do that? I don't want you getting sick. Tell me, what do you want to do right now instead? Something crazy."

"Skydiving?

"At this hour?"

"Swimming with the sharks."

"Sharks will kill you here."

"How about a concert?"

"At Gorbeon Pine? Impossible."

"Stop messing with me! I said I'm sorry for being late," I turn away from him, watching as the rain intensifies.

"You're always late," He says under his breath.

My words comes up a little bit softer than I have expected, "I know. Really, I'm sorry. I will try to change it, though."

He lets out a short laugh, "That's always in your New Year's resolution but that didn't change the fact that someone has to wait for you every time."

"I know."

The drops of water bounce onto the ground and to my bare legs. I pull two plies of tissue and brush the rain water off.

Getting to my car is surely going to be a challenge now that the rain is probably not going anywhere. Great.

"Hold my hand."

I glance at him over my shoulder perplexed, "Why would I do that?"

"Hold it to find out."

Is this a game?

My foreheard crease as I lift my hand to his. A weird feeling creeps over us when the solid ground begins to emit sheaths of black and gray smoke.

I shriek but it didn't help since it finally engulfs us in less than a minute.

The blinding sunlight pulls me back to reality. The flowers no longer in my hands, I can see that I am already wearing a blue shirt and a pair of dark pants and my running shoes.

My jaw drops as I process the situation. Is this still Gorbeon Pine? It isn't raining anymore. We were at the picture house a while ago. This is impossible!

UTC/GMT +5:45...7:50 AM...

"It's morning. What part of the world are we in?" I say under my breath.

As soon as I look down, my stomach churns and heart races. Just below is the majestic snow-filled dimgray mountain like a crinkle cookie. It is surrounded by smaller mountains that look intimidating on a first glance. It has an almost perfect conical shape if not from the nicks and burrs.

My head is already spinning as I hoist myself away from the open door of a moving large aircraft with forty other people in it. We're standing at the farthest end and nobody really pays attention.

"Mother of God! Where are we?"

"Welcome to the Himalayas, Buttercup."

"This is surreal. Did you just...teleported us to the other side of the world?"

"The side of the world where it's sunny so we can skydive," he says like it's not much of a big deal. But it is, for me!

I place my palms on the sides of my temple. "Oh s**t! This is amazing," I see his eyes soften as I let out a short laugh.

A tall, skinny man with brown almond eyes and yellow undertone says in a loud voice, "We will now collect the tickets."

"Do you have it?" I ask him.

He just smiles and flicks two rectangular tickets between his flingers.

The man takes our tickets and hands us the safety gear before high-fiving Austin.

"I knew you would come back, Austin!"

"You know me well, Girvesh."

"Is this your girlfriend?"

As if on unison we answer No. But my voice comes out more forced.

"O-kay. It's not like everyday I see you with a beautiful lady."

"That's right," he says casually with a little bit of humor. I nudge at him.

We put on our safety gear and parachute when he asks me to turn around.

Facing me, he move swiftly to apply our safety locks causing our bodies to crush into each other. My back pinned on his chest. I don't know where he got the rubber band but he ties my hair into a bun, his touch soft as his fingertips run down my scalp. I let out a moan and immediately cover my mouth with my hand.

Damn. I hope he did not hear that.

I can feel his hot breath on my neck that makes me shiver even more.

"Okay, guys. You're now in the highest drop zone in the world and the most scenic as well, thanks to Mt. Everest. Remember to keep calm and enjoy the experience. Thank you," Girvesh says. He wears a protective vest as he flashes a reassuring smile at me.

The two tourists who are both middle aged daredevils from Australia cheer as they were strapped on with the experts that will help them through the landing.

"They don't know that we just popped in here unnanounced?"

"Don't worry about it. They never notice."

We're in Nepal. Freakin' Nepal. We are on a plane that is six thousand, nine hundred thirty miles away from where we were minutes ago.

"Take a deep breath, Buttercup," he whispers to my ear as we walk our way to the edge of the entrance. His arms spread wide on both sides of the metal cover of the aircraft. It's our turn to jump.

It's like walking on a plank. Now I know how captain hook felt before he was fed to the alligators. Ha-ha!

"Whenever you're ready."

Closing my eyes, I inhale a cool bag of air that fill my nostrils like a strong mint.

I nod, "I'm ready."

A mix of excitement, nervousness and carefreeness is all that I can feel as we plunge to the abyss.

With Austin strapped behind me, I feel somewhat safe. But it did not stop me from screaming. I spread my arms as I feel every air particle hits my skin.

As soon as I open my brown eyes the picturesque view of the iconic place displays in front of me. The landscape is nearing towards my view and I can see the true beauty that Nepal has to offer. The perfect sculpting by the nature's beautiful but unforgiving mountain only a few feet away as adrenaline rushes through me.

"This is so cool!"

I can hear Austin let out a deep chuckle by my pure excitement. At a few minutes, he pulls our parachute as we are about to land.

Free falling twenty-nine thousand, five hundred feet from the ground in front of the tallest mountain in the entire world with a Shadow, might have been the most nerve-racking thing that I could have ever experienced in my entire life.